• Stories

    Long-lasting Jet Lag After 25H Flight

    The 25h long-haul flight I flew from Porto-Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta-Banjarmasin was completely different compared to the one I took when leaving Indonesia. Not only because I, probably, already get used to it, but also the stories that I was carrying all the way to Indonesia by then. It felt like I was having my radio on while playing the setlist that I used to listen to. Beautiful melody from Portuguese group of TUNA, Umi-No Mieru Machi (one of Ghibli ost I listened to), some ballad songs from Fado (Portuguese group too), or other catchy latin songs that easily stick to my mind nowadays which made them familiar every time I went…

  • Stories

    Dilema Menjadi Indonesia Seutuhnya

    “Aku paham,” ucapnya singkat sembari mengembangkan sedikit senyum kepadaku yang sedari tadi dilanda kebingungan. Banyak hal yang ingin kuutarakan, namun ada banyak hal pula yang menghalangiku untuk berkata demikian. “Aku meninggalkan keluargaku, teman-temanku, negaraku, bukan karena aku tidak sayang mereka, tapi sebagai bekalku menjadi prbadi yang lebih tangguh lagi,” jelasnya yang kubalas dengan anggukan kecil tanda setuju. Karena memang tidak ada yang perlu diragukan lagi tentang validitas jawabannya. Ia adalah anak dari keluarga (setidaknya) berkecukupan, pintar, dan lahir dari sebuah negara yang terkenal aman dan damai. Tidak ada huru-hara yang berarti, itu artinya tidak ada yang perlu ditakutkan untuk melanjutkan hidupnya di negara tempat ia belajar merangkak itu. “Semuanya baik-baik…

  • Stories

    Membaca Mimpi dari Ujung Benua Eropa

    Sudah teramat sering gue berbicara soal mimpi. Cerita tentang kegagalan, penolakan, malu, keluh kesah, hingga keberhasilan sudah pernah gue tuliskan sebagai memori. Tentu tidak semuanya, tapi sebagian besar pengalaman gue bergulat dengan mimpi telah dibagikan di blog ini. Harapannya, agar kelak cerita manis sebuah pencapaian tidak hanya sebatas foto bahagia yang terpampang di Instagram atau Facebook saja. Melainkan ada perjuangan keras yang dibalut tetes keringat di balik pencapaian tersebut. Perjalanan dari kampus menuju apartemen kali ini terasa lama. Selain karena cuaca Kota Porto memang sedang tidak bersahabat, rupanya ingatan akan memori di masa lampau cukup membuat langkah kaki ini melambat. Tidak henti-henti gue mengucap syukur bagaimana skenario Tuhan membawa gue…

  • English

    What We Could Learn from Portuguese (Part 2)

    In the previous article, I already mentioned three things that we, as human-beings, could learn from Portuguese. I know that those things don’t merely belong to Portuguese. Since I’ve been living here for a couple of months, I noticed that the life is going to be easier and happier if everyone could apply them in daily life. 1. Power of Obrigado and Smile Living in Indonesia whose climate is relatively warm in the entire year, stimulates its people to become warm too and give their best smile to everyone. This thing that I was worry about. I was wondering whether people would welcome and befriend me or not. But apparently,…

  • English

    What We Could Learn from Portuguese (Part 1)

    As an Indonesian living abroad, I’ve been experiencing an abundance of great things ever in my life. I met a lot of people with pretty much different stuff like age, language, culture and you name it. Not only is it shocking, but also it’s either challenging. Fortunately, I’m living in Porto, Portugal, short of a perfect city to stay and start a new whole life for a year. Why did I say that? Simply because I love being here. Portuguese people are super nice and warm, even to strangers. I’ve been to many countries in Europe but still I could see the differences. Honestly, it doesn’t mean that other European…